I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for loading live poultry. The poultry (typically chickens) is gathered within a chicken house by a specialized caging system which picks the poultry up from the floor of the chicken house, and transports the poultry to a poultry loading system which conveys the poultry to a weighing station to weigh batches of poultry, and then transports each batch of poultry to a caging system wherein the poultry are loaded into cages and subsequently are then offloaded from the poultry loading system onto a conveyor for transporting the poultry to a processing plant. 
II. Description of the Related Art
In the past there have been many poultry loading systems which attempt to automate the collection and loading of poultry for transporting the same to processing plants. However, the prior art suffers deficiencies in that the processing system does not fully automate the entire process.
A system which is indicative of the prior art is the patent to Stross (U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,815) which discloses a poultry loading system that moves poultry crates continuously along a trailer conveyor wherein the poultry is loaded during the movement of the crates.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,710 granted to Nicolai discloses a poultry loading system in which poultry is plucked from the ground surface by suction and then transported by conveyor belts to loading and transporting crates.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,477 granted to Weldy et al., another poultry conveying and loading system is shown wherein the poultry is loaded into a chute which comprises a main conveyor system which delivers the poultry to a point adjacent to a cage system for holding the poultry for transport. 
All of the prior art fail to show a coordinated processing system wherein the poultry is gathered, weighed, sorted and caged for shipment without human intervention.